Digging out.
Catching up after an extended absence, plus a new NYC jazz listings resource and recommended new-music performances Feb. 16–24, 2026.
Participating in a recording session for a forthcoming podcast about the glorious past, dismal present, and hopeful future of live music listings last week, I pointed out one downside of counting on Substack newsletters to fill the gaping hole left after mainstream media abandoned the practice: full-time, professional publications offer reliability and accountability, whereas for individuals, sometimes life takes precedence.
Illustrating my assertion, you’ve surely noticed that I’ve produced no listings here for just over a month, during which span many events assuredly have happened. It’s proof positive that we badly need reliable professional sources of event listings alongside we indie dreamers. And as it happens, for New York City jazz aficionados there’s a new source in town starting today.
Already active in New Orleans, the Jazz Generations Initiative has just started posting concert listings for New York City as well. And here, our picks are curated by my friend and former Time Out New York comrade Hank Shteamer, now a regular and welcome presence in The New York Times and here on Substack. The listings Hank is gathering eventually will be accessible on the JGI website—for now, they’re exclusively on Instagram.
Extraordinary circumstances have also conspired against my seeing any concerts during recent weeks, apart from two in which my daughter performed—which were superb, obviously. But I did manage to slip out to the NYU Bobst Library for the North American premiere of Derek Bailey – New Sights, Old Sounds, an anthology of performances by the great British improvising guitarist on film and video, assembled by Ian Greaves from sources held by the Derek Bailey Archive at the University of Huddersfield.
Some of this footage, like a TV sequence featuring the young Bailey, Barry Guy, and Paul Rutherford professionally filmed on a sound stage, is breathtaking. Other examples – a long, scrappy video shot at the Cooler by a cell phone user who mostly fixated on Peter Brötzmann; a wayward clip of a latter-day Joseph Holbrooke Trio reunion in which glimpses of Bailey and percussionist Tony Oxley are scattered among long shots of bassist Gavin Bryars and a tightening knob – requires patience.
Recent misgivings about saxophonist Evan Parker notwithstanding, I can’t endorse seeing his substantial place in Bailey’s life and work relegated to a punchline. (Luckily, there’s vintage video of the duo in happier days readily accessible elsewhere.) But as a steadfast Bailey devotee, I’m very glad to have caught this documentary—not least because during a lively post-screening talk back conducted via Zoom, Greaves explained that licensing issues would likely prevent streaming and home video options. I’m grateful to The Colloquium for Unpopular Culture for the congenial presentation.
There are a few judiciously chosen events coming up on my calendar; if I get to any of them, I’ll tell you all about it. In the meantime, the listings follow.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
16
Mano a Mano
La MaMa ETC
74 E. 4th St.; East Village
Monday, Feb. 16, Thursday, Feb. 19–Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7pm; Sunday, Feb. 22 at 2pm. $35, support-the-artists tickets $50, seniors and students $30
lamama.org
Running now at La MaMa is a one-man show significant for two reasons. First, it’s the latest work by the protean improvising vocalist and composer Paul Pinto, a reliably electric presence in work by thingNY, Varispeed, and Robert Ashley’s New Band; second, it’s the first major directorial venture for Kristin Marting after her rightly celebrated stints as a founder of HERE Arts Center and the PROTOTYPE festival. The show is described as “an operatic monodrama about toxic masculinity,” one that transforms the question “what if Sir Gawain and Beowulf were fighting over killing the same dragon?” into a 90-minute thrill ride. If you can’t attend in person, livestream tickets are available for the performance on Thursday, Feb. 19; details here.
Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn
Close Up
154 Orchard St.; Lower East Side
Monday, Feb. 16 & Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 & 9pm; $25
closeupnyc.com
The incisive, uncompromising saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Steve Lehman is back in town from the west coast for a couple of nights, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to catch up than to hear him in the company of his working rhythm section, bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Damion Reid, plus genius pianist Craig Taborn – the band featured on 2019’s exhilarating The People I Love – especially in a club intimate enough to warrant its name.
Striped Light
Undisclosed location
Long Island City; Queens
Monday, Feb. 16 at 7:30pm; $17.19
withfriends.events
The second Striped Light session of 2026 brings a duet from guitarist John King and dancer/sound artist Leyya Mona Tawil; a performance by improvising composer Jack Langdon on bibigwan, an Objibwe flute; and a solo set by violinist and composer Jennifer Gersten. (For another Jack Langdon performance this week, see Sat 21, Webb Crawford.)
17
Ensemble Connect
Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
154 W. 57th St.; Midtown West
Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7:30pm; $47–$53
carnegiehall.org
Ensemble Connect, the industrious fellowship for emerging professional musicians operated by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, offers a vivacious mix of American music, positioning a premiere by George E. Lewis alongside works by Scott Joplin, Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, and Valerie Coleman.
Talea Ensemble
The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew
520 Clinton Ave.; Brooklyn
Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7:30pm; $20, seniors $10, students pay-what-you-can
taleaensemble.org
The season-long Talea Ensemble focus on Luciano Berio’s complex, expressive Sequenzas reaches its third installment, featuring clarinetist Rane Moore in Sequenza IX, bassoonist Adrian Morejon in Sequenza XII, and soprano Lucy Shelton in Sequenza III. Completing the program are Anthony Braxton’s Composition No. 304 and Yoshiaki Onishi’s Gz III.
18
Alternative Guitar Summit
Barbès
376 9th St.; Brooklyn
Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7pm; $20
viewcy.com
Guitarist Joel Harrison rounds up fellow plectrists Ben Monder, Anthony Pirog, Wendy Eisenberg, Tim Watson, Emmanuel Michael, Gilad Hekselman, and Max Light to celebrate the release of Don’t Forget Your Guitar, a new collection of congenial string entanglements much like the ones you can anticipate at this gathering. (Also to be anticipated: a crowded room.)
Anzû Quartet
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7:30pm; $20, supporter tickets $42
tickettailor.com
Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time hardly counts as contemporary music 85 years after its composition. But its impact is timeless and its influence endures; for evidence, look to the Anzû Quartet, a foursome of new-music luminaries who formed to extend Messiaen’s legacy by commissioning and performing new works like the ones found on its debut album, Adjust. The quartet’s new recording of the Messiaen masterpiece is out Friday, but with a “supporter ticket” you can take a copy of the CD home a little early.
Sylvie Courvoisier
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Feb. 18–Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Sylvie Courvoisier returns to The New School for a Stone series of concerts that find this flexible, formidable improvising pianist and composer in a variety of enticing settings—and none more so than Friday’s set with tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, whose live performances have been exceedingly infrequent in recent years. Dip into every so often, their 2009 duo release, and you’ll understand what’s so special about this reunion. Courvoisier opens on Wednesday with the working trio heard on her forthcoming album Éclats – Live in Europe, and drives disparate quartets on Thursday and Saturday.
National Sawdust Ensemble
National Sawdust
80 N. 6th St.; Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 6pm; $45
nationalsawdust.org
The versatile, eclectic house band of National Sawdust presents the New York premiere of A Dust in Time, a meditative string quartet work based on Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas by composer Huang Ruo. The program also includes the composer’s two-part micro-opera Song of Everlasting Regret, performed by mezzo-soprano Kelly Clarke and pianist Joanne Kang.
19
Joyce DiDonato + Time for Three
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
881 Seventh Ave.; Midtown West
Thursday, Feb. 19 at 8pm; $20–$130
carnegiehall.org
The arresting mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato joins forces with Time for Three, the eclectic string trio comprising violinists Nick Kendall and Charles Yang and bassist Ranaan Meyer, for the New York premiere of Emily—No Prisoner Be, a dynamic cycle of Emily Dickinson settings by composer Kevin Puts. Responding to a Bay Area performance of the work, the redoubtable Joshua Kosman wrote, “There were times during the elaborately staged performance when I could barely believe the richness of what I was hearing.” Read his complete, detailed review here.
Experiential Orchestra
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave.; Morningside Heights
Thursday, Feb. 19 & Friday, Feb. 20 at 7:30pm, Saturday, Feb. 21 at 3:30pm; $100
experientialorchestra.com
Conductor James Blachly leads his enterprising Experiential Orchestra in three concerts celebrating the 90th birthday of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The program features works for strings, including the U.S. premiere performances of Für Lennart in memoriam and Sequentia. On Thursday and Friday, Michael Pärt, the composer’s son and co-founder of the Arvo Pärt Centre, will participate in pre-concert conversations starting at 6:30pm.
20
Endectomorph Music Festival
The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th fl.; NoMad
Friday, Feb. 20 & Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7pm; $30–$40, livestream $20
jazzgallery.org
It’s a strong, strong week at The Jazz Gallery: saxophonist Alden Hellmuth fronts a killer band with guest Steve Lehman on Wednesday, and violinist-composer Meg Okura celebrates Isaiah, a bold new album with her long-running Pan-Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, on Thursday. But even in this company, the booking that packs the biggest punch is a festival named after endectomorph music, the consistently vital indie record label founded 10 years ago by saxophonist Kevin Sun, pianist Phillip Golub, and drummer Jake Richter. That none of those players is performing during this two-night celebration underscores the label’s resolutely forward-looking stance. Instead, each night brings sets by three fresh acts; highlights include an intriguing quartet led by bassist Nick Joz on Friday, an opening set by the finely calibrated collaborative Prawntail to start Saturday’s show, and a closing set that night by pianist-composer Steve Long with the trio heard on his 2024 album, VĪXĪ. As ever, if you can’t join ’em, stream ’em.
21
BlackBox Ensemble
The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew
520 Clinton Ave.; Brooklyn
Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8pm; $28.52, artists $23.18, students $17.85
eventbrite.com
BlackBox Ensemble, appearing under the banner of the 2026 Composers Now Festival, performs New York premieres by Ileana Perez-Velazquez and Douglas Boyce alongside works by Ursula Mamlok, Nathalie Joachim, and festival founder and artistic director Tania León.
Webb Crawford
Issue Project Room
22 Boreum Pl.; Brooklyn
Saturday, Feb. 21 at 8pm; free admission
issueprojectroom.org
Webb Crawford, an ingenious, resourceful improvising guitarist, tenor banjoist, and instrument-builder, presents the first work of their term as an Issue Project Room artist-in-residence. Men dreme of thing that never was ne shall involves two modern-day reconstructions of the tromba marina, a medieval monochord sometimes referred to as the “nun’s violin,” played by Crawford and Sean Ali, plus Adam O’Farrill on trumpet and Jack Langdon on homemade PVC serpent horn.
22
Parlando
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St.; Upper West Side
Sunday, Feb. 22 at 3pm; $30–$40
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
Conductor Ian Niederhoffer leads his adventurous ensemble Parlando in an indelible work that emerged at the very end of the 20th century, as if to predict the 21st: in vain, a haunting microtonal meditation that composer Georg Friedrich Haas designated to be performed in absolute darkness.
23
Hypercube
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 W. 37th St.; Midtown West
Monday, Feb. 23 at 7pm; suggested donation $20
eventbrite.com
Hypercube, the fiery new-music quartet comprising saxophonist Erin Rogers, guitarist Jay Sorce, pianist and accordionist Andrea Lodge, and percussionist Chris Graham, starts your new week off right with premieres composed by Rick Burkhardt and Ashkan Behzadi.
Mannes Orchestra
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
1941 Broadway; Upper West Side
Monday, Feb. 23 at 7:30pm; stand-by only
event.newschool.edu
No surprise that this characteristically inventive program by the Mannes Orchestra is already booked to capacity . The concert opens with student conductor Dajoung Choi leading Sun Splendor, a brief, handsome work by Marion Bauer that Leopold Stokowski introduced with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York in 1947—a performance recorded for posterity. Music director David Hayes then conducts the New York premiere of Concerto for Westerlies by Conrad Tao, featuring the improvising brass quartet The Westerlies as soloists, and closes with Harmonielehre, the powerful early symphony-in-all-but-name by John Adams. Stand-by tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis just before the concert.
24
MATA Festival
Church of Advent Hope
111 E. 87th St.; Upper East Side
Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7:30pm; pay-what-you-choose (suggested donation $30)
matafestival.org
DragonBoot Quartet, a bright young group currently enrolled in the Honors Chamber Music Program at the Juilliard School, presents the world premiere of a new String Quartet by bassist-composer Kebra Seyoun Charles. Movements from quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leoš Janáček, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold lend contrast and context to this MATA Festival joint venture with Carnegie Hill Concerts.